Zombies + Literacy

Essential Questions:

• Why are zombies compelling?
• Can ELA teachers afford to ignore a national trend?

Zombies Vs. Literacy?  Yes, the app exists - an early reading iPhone app for kids as young as 1 year.  Read about it at the App Store. I bought it - not very good, but a sound introduction to the alphabet (letters and sounds), phonic blends (and therefore rhyme), and sight words.  My 2-year old Millie loves it. BabyBinks is a developer that I have recommended, by the way.  What do they know that I am just discovering?  Zombies are trending!

Just for fun, search Amazon Children's Books for "zombies" and sort by date.  There are 368 hits, about 2/3 of them dated after 2010.  In the Books search, there are over 9,000 hits and 2011 does not appear until p.9. 

The Update [11/23/13] - Read about Zombie [tech] Ideas at Hack Education and learn about Zombie Politics with Bill Moyers.

[4/17/14 - still trending] - The Pentagon has released a zombie apocalypse defense plan. Read about it at CNN and follow a link to actual plan.  Tongue in cheek, certainly, but definitely piggy-backing on a trend.

The Rationale: Zombies have even invaded PowerPoint. Above is a screenshot from a post by Bill Ferriter - The Tempered Radical - Five Tips for Creating Powerpoint Slides...   I like his ideas, and I follow this blog.  But I was temporarily stunned by the argument made for the power of the zombie image, which to me is repulsive:

• "Let's be honest: Audiences in today's hyper-connected, always on world have seriously fractured attention spans, y'all."

The zombie image is a grabber. Whether visually presented or stereotypically drawn in words (bleeding, blood-thirsty, brain-eating, sexless, distorted, cannibalistic, dulled to intelligent thought), it is nightmarish but mesmerizing.

So we have preK at one end of the zombie spectrum and adults (teachers) at the other.  It seems that we like to like zombies.  We like the idea of confronting the living dead. 

It turns out that this may be scientifically accurate.  Read Christina Robertson's  Why Do We Like to be 'Scared to Death' and Science Daily's Why Do People Like Horror Movies? for intelligent, if short (good for the classroom), discussions of the questions.

On the other hand, I am distressed by this summative statement from Robertson's post: "There are many ways we may choose “non-being” in our lives – by not being aware of what we think and what we are choosing, by making inauthentic decisions, by not determining our values, by following the values of others, the list is endless.  Actions leading to non-being lack authenticity and responsibility."  Psychologically, non-being is an attractive choice.  This sounds very much like the YA worldview.  One way that teachers can confront distress is to teach it - then the students help with the therapy.  We do, after all, read about a lot of distressing topics: bullying, dysfunctional families, the end of life as we know it, abuse, self-abuse, gangs, desertion, war, murder - to name a few.  Why not zombies?

So my question is this: Why are zombies an appealing choice?  Is it:

1. because students can brainlessly interact with them (read about them, play with them, view them, laugh at them) while still feeling alive (afraid, powerful, superior, surprised, funny),  or
2. because students instinctively identify with the concept of "non-being" and its correlatives: freedom to behave outside of the accepted moral code, and to do so without the hindrance of conscience or fear of death or physical pain, or
3. because we can not help but grapple with the questions: What does it mean to be HUMAN? or
4. because zombies are ugly, gawky, socially awkward, easily targeted, and - basically - victims?
5. because zombies reflect cultural fears, appearing during those historical periods that we feel most out of control and fearful, or
6. because of something else that students themselves can explain and define?

#2 - #6 are interesting answers for the classroom, raising zombie literacy into the realm of honest study.  Conveniently, #1 is also true, making that study attractive to kids.  So I think they deserve a PBL unit, or at least a lit circle, of their own.

The Resources: What materials are available to the literacy teacher using zombies to frame a unit?   I am assuming that this study would begin in the late middle grades, although that may be a false assumption, given the growing number of apps and visual texts with zombie content.  I personally would set the bar at 8th grade, but you have to know your class.

Fiction

• The Forest of Hands and Teeth (Ryan - ) - I did not read the remaining books in the series, having found this book very uneven, but many YA girls love it - interesting
• The Undead: Zombie Anthology (stories, ed. by Snell) - many of the contemporary zombie novelists are represented - great for comparative study (plots, themes, symbols, characterization)
• Zombies! Zombies! Zombies! (stories ed. Penzler) - a collection of classic stories, some of which are the backbone of the genre
• Book of the Dead (stories ed. Skipp) - also a Book of the Dead 2 - recommended as the best 20th century collections
• Zombie Mommy (M.T. Anderson) - Pals in Peril series - for the 3rd - 5th crowd, by the award winning author of Feed, Octavian Nothing and other great books
• Not Everything Brainless is Dead (Joshua Price) - 1st book in new series, exclusively for Kindle - MS will like it best
• Day by Day Armageddon (Bourne) - journal format, making a neat twin for Brooks' World War Z and I Am Legend (film)
• World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie Wars (Brooks) - chillingly matter-of-fact narration with a hint of 19th century voice - an upcoming classic in the genre
• The Terminal Experiment (Sawyer) - Nebula winning SF deals with electronic zombies
• Boneshaker (Priest) - steampunk meets zombies
• Never Slow Dance with a Zombie (Van Lowe) - chicklit meets zombies
• You Are So Undead to Me (Jay) - young YA, easier - cheerleader zombie slayer
• Night of the Living Dead (Andrews) - novelization of the classic film
• I Am Legend (Matheson) - re-release of 1954 novel set in 1976 - also film and graphic novel - also a Kindle ebook summary and study guide
• The Jumbee (Keyes) - zombie theme add suspense to this young-girl-falls-for-mysterious-guy-on-tropical-island tale
• Cell (King) - nice for today's kids
• Eaters of the Dead (Crichton) - classic - he does not specify zombies, but it is close - this is a great read

Children's Books - many of the newer titles use the zombie theme to "spoof" classic titles - some of these will be warm reminders of childhood - these provide great ideas for student authentic projects

• Pat the Zombie, a Cruel Adult Spoof (Ximm) - don't go here as a parent or kid, but as a teacher I would show the book to grades 7+
• That's Not Your Mommy Anymore: a Zombie Tale (Mogk) - may be the hottest new title
• Zachary Zombie and the Lost Boy, a Story for Demented Children (John H. Carroll) - free for Kindle and part of a series currently numbering 7 - clever!
• Diary of a Zombie Kid GN (Perry) - yes, it's illustrated
• Goosebumps Hall of Horrors #4 - Why I Quit Zombie School (R.L. Stine) 
• Zombie Tag (Moskowitz)
• Zombie in Love (DiPucchio) - picture book, early reader
• Ten Little Zombies - a Love Story (Rash) - you know the rhyme - zombified
• Z is for Zombie (Kutner) - not your everyday alphabet book
• Baby Bubba Wants a New Mommy (Crenshaw and Ballard) - read this one online
• Nobody Wants to Play With Zombie Jesus (Preble) - Kindle eBook for $.99 - yes, it is offensive

 

Graphic Novels and Comics - The visual art in these can be compared to the impact of word descriptions in the above - find any humor here?  why not? 

• The Walking Dead (Kirkman), Dead Rising - for the shoot-em game players - series - sold (read online or  download for iPad) at ComiXology - not for MS
• Shaun of the Dead (IDW Publishing) - comic book - 4 issues
• Night of the Living Dead TP (Russo) - prequel to the film! new characters and plot additions - there is also a Vol. 2, which introduces some contemporary plot elements
• Richard Matheson's I am Legend (graphic novel) (Niles) - from the novel and film
• The Zombie Survival Guide: Recorded Attacks (Brooks) - pair with World War Z - premise is that throughout history the zombies have been active
• Zombies (Cole et.al) - gathering of great zombie comics - 2012 release
• Remains - zombie attack comic/graphic novel - sold (read online or download for iPad) at ComiXology
• They Do Not Die! (Brown) - undead at 18 in rural Alabama - girl teen protagonist
• Infestation series (IDW) - zombie events affect the worlds of comic classics Ghostbusters, GI Joe, Star Trek, and others in this cross-over digital comic series sold (read online or download for iPad) at ComiXology
• Many more titles can be found by searching ComiXology for "zombies"

Poetry

• Little Book of Zombie Poems (Beckett) - download .pdf file - these will appeal to struggling poets
• Aim for the Head: An Anthology of Zombie Poetry (ed. Peterson)
• Magnetic Poetry Kit: Zombie (Amazon) - how cool is that for the creative classroom!
• Zombie Haiku: Good Poetry for Your...Brains (Mecum) - real cheap used from Amazon - these will appeal to YA, but also are quite imagistic: 

Biting into heads

is much harder than it looks.

The skull is feisty.

Drama & Scripts- not recommending these for quality, but I have skimmed them all - offered as models and for reading in class, but students can also comment on the scripts at Simply Scripts

• Zombie Wedding - purchase and download e-script
• Zombie Playground - .pdf download
• Alone - .pdf download 
• Apocalyptic - .pdf download - alien zombie invasion
• Axing the Zombie - .pdf download - comedy short
• Dead and Gone - .pdf download - classic survive after deadly virus short
• Dispatch - .pdf download - short 9-1-1 thriller
• 28 Days Till the Return of the Night of the Evil Dead Residents - read online

Film, TV, media - also check out wikipedia's list of Zombie films

• Night of the Living Dead (Romero, 1968 - DVD) - classic film that kicked off my own study - my middle schooler's just barely made it through this one
• Carnival of Souls - see a trailer here
• The Living Skeleton
• Abraham Lincoln vs. Zombies (2012 NR, Netflix) - how can your resist?
• Shaun of the Dead (DVD) - Rated R - but out-cuts would be excellent
• I am Legend (2007 - PG 13 - DVD) - based on I am Legend novel - zombies are more like vampires here
• Omega Man (1971 - PG - 1971) - based on I am Legend novel - quasi-zombie-vampires here
• The Last Man on Earth (1964 - DVD) - based on I am Legend novel - unrated
• The Walking Dead (TV series on DVD)
• The Returned (French with subtitles, Sundance Channel TV, 8-part series) - Netflix
• Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things (Ormsby, 1972 - DVD - PG) - somewhat humorous
• The Ghost Breakers (1940 - DVD) - Bob Hope comedy!  or Scared Stiff (1953) - Martin & Lewis remake
• Michael Jackson's Thriller (YouTube)
• We're Alive - the Zombie Podcast - best downloaded - episodes listed here - reviewed here
• Super 8 (2011 - DVD) - kids set out to make a zombie film, but run into something else entirely

Creative non-Fiction - Informational text - Humor

• So Now You're a Zombie: A Handbook for the Newly Undead (Austin) - basically a survival guide, but also background info on zombies - humorous
• Zombies (Graphic Dark Side) (Shone) - graphic format "investigation" of zombies
• The Zombie Survival Guide (Brooks) - tongue in cheek and also great reading - challenge your guys to get the sarcasm and humor, and of course off up some straight survival guides
• Zombie Types - web page guide - nice model for a similar student compilation
• A History of Zombies in America - this one is straight - use it for background - readable as is
• Fact or Fiction? (information literacy - main idea - compare/contrast) - these are just some suggestions:
• Zombie Attack at Hierakonpolis
• Did Zombies Roam Medieval Ireland?
• Top Three Zombie Outbreaks in US History
• How To Survive a Zombie Apocalypse

Social Networking - Collaboration

• Lost Zombies - building a collective library of images and stories - student project? - you decide 
• Zombie Research Society - you decide - check out the blog
• Z-Composition - students can submit poetry, art, flash fiction and other fiction to this new e-zine
• Zombie Nation - another place for submissions: haiku, short video, comics, more - great ideas for projects
• Kill the Zombies - submit reviews and comments after playing
• Simply Scripts - students can read zombie screen play scripts, comment on them, and submit their own

Simulation/Games/Apps - as of Thanksgiving (a fitting time for this search) there are 2199 apps found in an iStore search for "zombie" and my own 6 year-old grandson will only play Plants vs. Zombies on the iPad, which is his first game app ever

• Operation: Eradicate - ($1.99 app) - tactical game for the serious gamer in which assault teams work together and independently to stop - you got it - the zombie invasion
• Zombie Virus Survival (free app) - avoid the incoming green virus
• The Running Dead - free app - PacMan in zombieland?
• Zombie Life - free app in the Sims tradition (problem-solving), but to advance you need to purchase gems and gold ($.99 and up) - "fantasy violence" but also problem-solving
• Zombie Lane - free app and also a web app - competitive social game-play, so this has a creative-thinking element - to advance you need to purchase cash ($.99 and up) - "fantasy violence"
• Zombies vs Ninja - free app - player takes on role of ninja killing zombies, so this is a point of view exercise too - to advance you need to purchase weapons ($.99 and up) - "fantasy violence"
• Zombie Wonderland and Zombie Wonderland 2 - inventive fun destroying and mopping up zombies - app
• Farm Destroy: Alien Zombie Attack - free strategy 3D game app - destroy a farm full of zombie animals - no in-app purchases necessary
• My Pet Zombie - free app - like NeoPets, these zombies can be dressed, designed, fed, etc. - for the elementary school crowd (no reading necessary) - lots of cool stuff to buy for them 
• Resident Evil - game series features zombies - also turned into an easily read novel series, by the way (Perry)
• Kill the Zombies - on-line game play - many options
• The Endless Zombie Rampage - social gaming - "enjoy the carnage"
• Play Zombie Games - I like the very simple Bounzy game, which uses simply physics to eliminate zombies - the Angry Birds of zombies

Activities - Aside from those suggested by the games, apps, children's books, and media above, you might involve students in: 

• A Zombie 5K fund-raising run - Not kidding! - to support a health-related cause - read about the real runs
• A comparative read of a different apocalypse novel (or film viewing) - there are tons: vampires, ice age, comet crashes, moon going off course, alien invasion, plague, unknown mysterious events causing the death of all adults, pollution, war - easy to find a read for every student
• a spoof - a spoof of a spoof is always good fun

So there you are - Zombies + Literacy = Engagement.  It's a no-brainer : ).  

Math Literacy and Casual Learning

Wandering though the newest SmartBrief on EdTech, I found an article about digital textbooks in Fairfax County, Virginia.  Following up on the social studies/history texts used by the school highlighted in the article, I found my way to McGraw-Hill digital texts.  EveryDay math's digital support site caught my eye.  Here I found a list of Free Family Resources to support the text.  The Algorithms supports are fabulous for Flipping and Reviewing, but I want to highlight here the Literature Lists. 

Teachers can bring these lists to the librarian or the literacy specialist and quickly gather reading texts to support math lessons in grades preK-6.  Titles are fiction, picture book, and informational.  Most are dated after 1995.

The listing is alphabetical, but it references the exact Everyday Math lesson that is supported.

This is a terrific resource for teachers using the series - and even for those using a different math text who want to add a literacy layer to math instruction.

It is also another reason for continued growth and expansion of school libraries. 

Macmillan/McGraw-Hill online shopping list link

in-text link from article

A comment on this search:  In order to learn something new quickly and effectively, I had to do a lot of reading, ask relevant questions (Specifically what digital books are being used?),  ask curious questions (What could possibly be at the end of this link?), respond to a link as a text feature (and know how to do this in a new tab), persevere through a poorly designed site (no search function on the multi-page Macmillan/McGraw-Hill online shopping list, no quick-link to online texts), and make decisions based on my prior knowledge.  My initial search (for the digital text called American Journey) resulted in nothing more than a price per user.  It was the casually connected information - the Everyday Math link above - that yielded useful learning. 

Teaching students to be alert to this casual information is one way to encourage independent learning.  Recognize useful and cool information found as a result of a reading or research task!  Create a classroom blog space for reporting it.

Just a nottio...

Through somewhere, I ran today into a link to this article in the Digital Learning Environment, about cell phones as viable tools in the classroom. Scroll down to the list of apps under the table. I knew about some of them, but not many. I checked out a few and visited a link which brought me to the From Toy to Tool blog, which brought me to Yodio.

Wow. We have an environmental trip experience coming up and a town history lesson in the spring - Yodio would be beyond fun. Looking ahead six months, this looks promising...

After over a week of conferencing about research ideas, tools, and results, I am ready to see what kids can do via Yodio in terms of reporting. An Yodio product would be a welcome change from 80 poorly written first attempt at a research summary. Better yet, it would be a great way to assess actual learning about topic. Of course, I could just meet with each student for 5 minutes...

I am Yodioing without the digitalization of it all. So in a sense, the technology is truly transparent - or maybe it is an unnecessary toy. It depends on how the teacher looks at it. Many of my students would love to Yodio - an equal number would rather just dialogue with me about a slide show of computer images.

After thinking about ten minutes, I would rather assess the talking and encourage the Yodioing. Teach me and yourself (dialogue) + teach yourself and your classmates (Yodio). They are not mutually exclusive, both are important, and either one is practice for the other. Yo.

Process

"Instead of content memorization, we should be teaching content processes" (David Andrade, " 21st Century Skills").

Originally, my post was one word: Absolutely. But after three days and one intense after-school session in the library working on the research process, I am not so sure.

Andrade is correct - today's quick access to digital content makes much memorization unnecessary, especially in a 1-1 laptop program like ours. But I have observed that processes that involve non-digital elements make content memorization happen - and happen more quickly. Digital processes build upon and contribute this learning, but they are the be-all for today's classroom. Accessing digital content is just one more style that helps learning to happen. On its own, I do not believe that it is enough. The problem is - how can I convince students that this is true?

My process of teaching content is doing multiple processes - which jigsaw into a map of successful learning. This is old pedagogy, but I am afraid that today's teachers will forget about it as laptops and highspeed wireless become more ubiquitous.

Here is some anecdotal support for what I believe in:

We are studying the medieval culture out of which the Grimm's and other fairy tales grew. Our processes have been varied. I have not provided notes beyond a revisit of the Plot diagram, or vocabulary lists, or any content beyond two boards covered with hand drawn settings and characters (after an initial reading of a picture book tale retelling).

Example 1: Students listened to my oral tellings of classic versions of "Hansel and Gretel" and "Three Billy Goats Gruff," and then, in discussion and role-play, related these stories to our world and to an inferred "old" world. We drew conclusions about the importance of land, about living with no or reduced resources, about violent change, about haves-and-have-nots, about family problems, about the childhood of the poor, about rural housing of the poor, about jobs of the rural poor, about the roles of witches in this society. These conclusions are right-on, historically. When I assigned students to write in the 1st person as a poor child in the year 1378, going to bed, the details from the stories and our discussion are prominent in the pieces. That is content memorization.

Example 2: We selected broad all-cultural topics and began the research process of narrowing them to middle ages topics through "keyword research" and questioning - no Internet searching allowed. We looked at the digital catalog, at contents and indices of books we located, at a print encyclopedia index. Yup - there was simple V organizer (broad to narrow), but the most important part of this process was conferencing and talking about the topics. M., for example, moved from Government to What rights and freedoms did the serfs have in a feudal society?
J. moved from Artistic Expression to What was the role of stained glass windows in cathedrals? M. discovered that her best friend, who was looking at How did the farming peasant deal with loss of resources?, shared many of the same resources and ideas. Encouraged to talk and share resources, our kids bubbled over with the content they were memorizing - or was that deeply learning?

Without this verbal process, and the V organizer's insistance on a purposeful narrowing of topic, these students would not have explored the ideas behind the content. They would simply not have thought about it at all. In fact, there are two or three students who slip-slided around the three adults in the library and did jump into Google. Not a one of them had any viable information or understanding after almost an hour of searching. One student, with the broad topic of Artistic Expression, was taking notes on Native American birch bark as a pigment. After a quick conference, she has refocused on stone carvings in medieval churches (will be gargoyles, probably) - but she lost a lot of time.

Example 3: K. had a lot of trouble committing to a narrow topic within Art. She and I finally narrowed it to illuminated manuscripts. She read about illumination in several "skinny" books - but was not passionate about the topic. She won't be until she sees The Book of Kells on the net. I can't wait! K will have the background, and she can add her own ideas by focusing on one aspect of the illuminations themselves that intriques her. It would be even better if I had my mom's old reproduction of the book, but that has disappeared.

Example 4: Working after school today with a hesitant reader, M. We narrowed Medicine down to Superstitious Remedies, with a focus on Epilepsy (we have a great three volume encyclopedia of supersitition). She was reading that "doctors" were often also barbers. Why? I got her to the point of recognizing tools doctors and barbers have in common, but she could not get the "straight razor." She is the one who said, "Find a Google image, for G-'s sake - we have the laptop." So there it was - and she got the connection instantly. That is where digital content enters process. Will she remember the barber-razor-surgeon connection? Absolutely (hope she reads Cervantes at some point...).

Point? I am learning this year that our kids may be gradually becoming "native" in their approach to learning. But there are processes that should not be lost in the process. Our job is to identify these until they are digitized (as I think they might be...)

The Selection Skill-set

I have been reading and contributing to the English Companion Ning almost since it began, and I highly recommend it to all ELA teachers. We have even been joined by social studies teachers who realize that their students have to read and write.

Today I reflected, after reading a fabulous blog post by Alan Sitomer and a response by Paul Hankins, there is very little discussion on the ning about students selecting themes, topics, novels, short stories, etc. Choosing yes; selecting no. The difference, as I see it, is that selection has a much broader palette than choice; selection, in fact, has a palette of infinite possibilities. As teachers, we feel that one of our primary responsibilities is to select topics, themes, books, exercises, projects, websites from which students must choose. This is probably because we, as adults, believe that students do have not enough experience to make Selections. This, as Hankins points out, is the iTunes model. He argues that education misses the boat by not providing students with an iTunes-like store of learning content and subject areas from which to choose. Actually, that store exists - for free - in both print (libraries) and digital (Internet) formats. The fact of the matter is that students don't use resources for learning nearly as much as envious "digital immigrants" want to believe. They do, I think, have practice in the necessary sub-skills, but not as these skills contribute to the process of Selection. By and large, as I have pointed out over the last two years, students are weak at Selection (in fact, they don't want to do it) - at least at the middle school level. It is a niggling bother in my mind that this is true.

Is it possible to ignite student to want to Select their own learning objectives and objects? Is it possible to teach Selection? How would students practice and scaffold Selection?

First, the skill set.

As a teacher seeking sources, or as a researcher, or as a purchaser (iTunes, Kindle books, Audible, Best Buy, Kids R Us...), I want to sample and review the wares. How old is this idea? As old as barter.

Think about this: by grade 3 or 4 teachers expect students ("digital natives") to be able to complete simple Google keyword searches and find fill-in-the-blank information. Plug in a keyword, click search, and get a hit list of websites. Go to the "best" site and pull out the information. In fact, these students are, after a year of practice (I would hope) learning to use the sampling tools provided to them by Google: the URL and the language of the summary. Once at a site, they use the navigation tools (named tabs, nav panel, lists) to sample content. They have also been, since grade 2 or 3, using the same sampling skill to skim textbook and reading selections for keywords and headings. This is an essential component of informational reading instruction.

To review the sources and sites, students need to follow links and be able to quickly assess their value. For print and web informational text, this is called skimming. Today's students also need and want to access other students and adults who have used the sites. The coolest thing about Web 2.0 is the way it is changing informational sites to make the review process possible; think of all those sites with 5-star ratings (still uneven and untrustworthy, but developing).

Review also comes into play when the students plays a quick mental movie reel of "What I Know" at the beginning of the Selection process. It comes when students, after reading a novel, reflect on the themes and questions raised by the book.

Joined at the hip to Review is Questioning. Jamie McKenzie has written, and continues to write, extensively about this topic. The ability to frame good questions about topic is key to the Big 6 research process, to writing Essential Questions, and to Selection itself. After all, how can you direct your own inquiry if you don't have an inquiry?

Sampling, review and questioning are information literacy skills - invaluable and teachable (ask your librarian). They are practiced, even in teacher-led classrooms, frequently. But these skills alone do not equip students to select their own learning paths.

The last skill is probably most important to Selection. It comes into play before, during and after sampling and review. I call it ownership. Think about the last time you made a list of books, topics, spelling words, facts, famous people, literary terms. Didn't you own every item on that list? If you were unsure of an item, didn't it come off the list until you felt secure about it? It is not new pedagogy to state that students need the same ownership of topic in order to Select it - and then to do a good job of learning. It is ownership that makes Selection work as a pedagogy by scaffolding information literacy toward ownership. The trouble is, ownership is hard work, and many students are not comfortable with it. It is necessary to teach students how to identify and articulate their own interests and curiosities. No, they don't do this natively. Think for a second like a middle schooler. For most of your in-school life you have been doing assignments provided by a teacher. For most of your out-of-school life you have been reacting to information put in your face by the media or copying the interests of your peers and role models. It has been easy. Now all of a sudden a teacher says, "Select something you are interested in, review it to make sure you are interested, and narrow the topic so that it is manageable in X number of days." You panic! You say, "But I am not interested in anything! Give me a list! Give me a topic!"

The condundrum for the teacher is this: Research-based pedagogy points to the importance of student-led projects founded deeply in student interest - but students today, for all of the digital resources freely available to them, live in a smaller box and a narrower tunnel than ever before. They simply are not using those resources as tools for selecting those topics that do interest them deeply. This skill has been lost due to educational practice and learning-indifferent parenting. Turning this trend around becomes the teacher's prime responsibility.

[You can stop here if you wish and go buy Comprehension & Collaboration; Inquiry Circles in Action, a new book by Stephanie Harvey and Harvey Daniels. I got it in the mail yesterday. If you want an iTunes approach to this topic, get the book. If you want to practice Selection, read on and think for yourself about applying the concepts to your classroom.]

It really is quite simple to provide Selection practice. If every research topic is intentionally as broad as it can be ("the 1920's" instead of "Fashion, technology, crime or music in the 1920's"; "a Quick Topic that interests you today" instead of "A scientist"), students will be challenged to develop a deeper understanding of where their curiosities lie. There are many ways to nudge them:

• What was the last book or magazine article that grabbed you?
• Write or draw 10 things that you wonder about.
• List 3 things your parents have made you curious about.
• List 3 things your best friend likes that you don't like.
• If you could ask the "top god" a question, what would it be?
• Do fish sleep? is a my question about nature. What is yours?

Next should come sampling and review and more questioning. Go to the library, go online, take the beginnings of idea home for a few days (Harvey and Daniels call this "marinating in the material" - a great way to think of it!). I would use entry passes and exit passes in my classroom at this point to add some accountability to the process. If working in groups, bring results to the group and its accountability system.

Then you need to allow time for talking about the resulting lists, topics, ideas. Ideas need to be declared with confidence. At least a full class period--generally more--needs to be spent on Selection, before any research notes or reading or planning is done. This is like the deep learning of a new vocabulary word - the word needs to be explored and used in as many ways as possible. It needs to be owned.

Sounds like a lot of prep time, doesn't it? It will be. Students do gain confidence with their ability to Select, however, and confidence speeds up the process. What is the teacher's role? You need to organize the journey. This means creating timelines, creating groups, providing organizational tools and ideas (I like Grammar Girls little video about organization), guiding projects or outcomes, being a resource for materials and marinades, nudging when necessary, listening actively, collaborating with each group. I think this is fun, for the most part. Sometime,s it seems boring because I'm not really needed in the classroom. That is the hardest part.

Trails - Research Process Tool (an aside)

Trails is an online information literacy assessment tool. I am using the grade 9 assessments to help the Librarian and the ELA department develop a better research skills process. The test is hard, but it's good. I recommend that teachers:

1. create an account,
   
2. create a practice group of ALL students,
   
3. get logins for as many students as will be assessed,
   
4. and then set up the REAL testing sessions by selecting no more than 4 of the 10-question topics,
5. use the initial set of logins for each 10-question assessment (saves a lot of time and record-keeping).
   

I think these 40 questions will give us a very good overview of the online (and paper) research skills of our students. Just by taking the test, students learn what they don't know (like what an almanac is).

I recommend this tool for teachers who want to get a handle on on the non-Google approach to research. Teachers who take it will learn a bit about topic construction and research methods too...